UK's leading productivity-focused organisations sign MoU

London, 2 March 2022: The Productivity Institute, the research network for exploring UK productivity, and Be the Business have signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) reflecting the two organisations’ commitment to collaborate to better understand and improve the productivity of UK businesses.

The MoU will provide a framework to enable the two organisations to build on the existing relationship and co-deliver a series of projects generating new research and insights into UK SME productivity.

The agreement signifies a shared ambition from the two organisations to address UK business productivity under-performance and, in particular, bridge the gap between research insights and practical application. The two organisations will focus on developing a deeper understanding of SME behaviours and firm level productivity and use this insight to design and deliver new support programmes to enhance the productivity of UK firms.

The Productivity Institute is a UK-wide research organisation funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Its mission is to lay the foundations for an era of sustained and inclusive productivity growth based on the premise that the long-term underperformance of productivity in the UK threatens a future of global excellence in economic performance and shared prosperity across the nation.

Bart van Ark, The Productivity Institute MD, said: “The collaboration between The Productivity Institute and Be the Business provides a unique opportunity to leverage both organisations’ strengths. TPI provides a broad-based research capability to better understand the drivers, barriers and opportunities for productivity, including leading research from ten academic institutions across the UK. Be the Business provides a well-developed and sophisticated platform to help translate those insights into concrete actions which businesses can undertake to improve firm performance and strengthen productivity”.

Anthony Impey, CEO of Be the Business, added: “I am delighted that The Productivity Institute is working with Be the Business on our mission to boost UK productivity. This partnership will build on the work our organisations do to bridge insight and application. By leveraging new insights generated by The Productivity Institute, Be the Business will develop products and services that make a real difference to small business productivity, which in turn will inform new insights, creating a flywheel effect. Our shared ambition is to build a robust understanding of what needs to be done at a national level to transform the country’s productivity.”